Spatio-temporal analysis of planthoppers population based on GIS

Planthoppers, as one of the most widespread and destructive rice pests, greatly affect the rice yield. Although various control measures have been taken, the overall effect in predicting the outbreak pattern and minimizing the damage is not significant. To improve the level of forecast, it is necessary to have a good understanding of spatio-temporal change of planthoppers. The multi-factor spatial interpolation model based on Geographic information system (GIS) was used to make the thematic map of spatial planthoppers distributions in Guangdong province according to the monitoring data in 2008. Comparing the thematic maps in different time periods, it is clear that the population of planthoppers has a spatio-temporal characteristic, which is not only related to space location, but also has a certain direction when spreading. The result reported here offers help to prevention and control of planthoppers in Guangdong province, as well as to provide a good reference for studies of other pests.